Hundreds of personal stories about organ donation are being shared online thanks to one man’s visionary website.

Barking and Dagenham Post: Dean Jones with his donor cardDean Jones with his donor card (Image: Archant)

Dean Jones, of Burdetts Road, Dagenham, set up website Video Donor after being moved the plight of a teenager in need of a bone marrow transplant at a Christian convention in July last year.

The 35-year-old hobbying web designer has since put his own time and money into creating the site which receives up to 15 new testimonies a day from those affected by organ donation and said he is now looking to take on three local interns to help out.

The full time project manager, who is of Jamaican descent, also spoke about a lack of people from the black community coming forward to donate and of wanting to encourage more to step forward.

“[The teenager’s story] played on my mind when I came back home. I have done a lot of websites so I said I have got to use my hobby to do some good,” said Dean.

He described the not-for-profit website, which now has more than 10,000 videos in total and has spawned a free iPhone app, as “a video sharing site that aims to promote organ donation through real-life stories”.

Videos can include anything from donors’ testimonies and inspirational songs to informative information about transplant procedures.

Dean said he is hoping to recruit interns from Barking and Dagenham to help him follow up on donor’s stories and write blogs as well as helped to develop the website.

“I’ve got a lot of plans but not enough hands,” he said. “We are going through a recession but that doesn’t mean we can’t do something good.”

Dean is currently looking for donations to help make Video Donor self-sustaining in the near future.

To contact Dean about becoming an intern or to offer a donation, email dean.jones@videodonor.com or call 07984 251660.